It’s been nearly 6 years since a Monster Hunter game was last on a home console, with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the Wii U, and clearly they’ve been missing out from what Monster Hunter World gives the player.
The game revolves around a single looping mechanic. You go hunt a big monster, you use the parts you cut off from them to make bigger and better weapons and armour, so you can then go hunt an even bigger monster and repeat all over again.
While this sounds repetitive, it certainly doesn’t feel it. With over 30 large monsters to hunt, each coming in different sizes and difficulty, you have plenty of different creatures to kill, or capture. And with 14 different weapon types, you have many ways to hunt.
The story of the game is nothing to shout about, but still is enough to keep you slightly curious. It revolves around some very strong monsters, known as Elder Dragons, migrating to a new land, and you need to find out why. This leads you to tracking the monsters, killing monster and so on. It spans around 40 hours if you count the time it’ll take you to hunt in between story based quests, so you should have a while before all you’re doing is hunting what you want to hunt.
The real joy from the game though is the co-operative aspect. During any time in the game, you can go online and join in hunts with anyone, anywhere in the world. This can be through just setting up a lobby and having people join, or answering special requests called SOS Beacons, which a player can send out if they’re struggling and can call some other hunters to come help.
As well as this there is the gathering hall, where you can interact with other players through chat, stickers, or even arm wrestling (something which I am still yet to master). You can even make a private lobby for you and your friends too!
The series has always looked threatening for new players to enter, but World is the most accessible game yet
One of the biggest problems the Monster Hunter series has always had is accessibility. With 14 weapons types, many different armour and weapon combos to use and all the environments to explore and learn the aspects of, the series has always looked threatening for new players to enter. But World is the most accessible game in the series’ long-running history.
With easy to understand tutorials you’ll be able to learn what everything in your main camp does. And the training arena gives you a nice way to learn combos with the various weapons, and even gives you examples to try out and start you off. The UI and inventory can still be daunting, especially when you have a big red dragon trying to shoot fireballs at you and you have to try scroll through a bar of items with your square and circle buttons while avoiding damage. It’s a bit hard.
Overall, the game could be considered a masterpiece almost. The same gameplay that has made the series great has been enhanced with the power of a console, compared to the old 3DS, and the sheer size of the game (its maps are all absolutely huge and stunning) coupled with the replayability of every hunt makes it a must buy on PS4 or Xbox (and PC when it releases in the fall as well).
